Week 6: Tues. Feb. 23
Had Video Art prepared Us Enough for Zoom Meetings?
https://medium.com/@ViKitsune/had-video-art-prepared-us-enough-for-zoom-meetings-7c23e0f129f9
“A camera staring at the face of a talking person can only remind me of one thing: video art” – Vivian Castro
Returning Image and Sound.
“To speak to someone online is not the same thing to speak to a person online. So, how do we construct our thoughts and express them to others in a so mediated and strange space? Are we expressing everything we want to? Do we have trouble making connections between thoughts?” -Vivian Castro
- The immediacy of Zoom.
- Distance between words and their apprehension and comprehension.
- Mediated space.
Disrupting The Video Space.
- Difficulty focusing, and processing non-verbal features. In my own experience, seeing your own facing is distracting.
- An impluse to talk all the time, no time for silence.
- The feeling we are being watched, not only by others but by ourselves too.
- We are trapped in the screen and at our desks.
Nam June Paik
- Predicted a number of things like the internet, smart phones, Global media, climate crisis and video as art.
- he built sculptures and installations out of TVs; he made his own synthesizer and broadcasted live events.
- He believed that tech would give the ability to see through differences and come to together, sharing art.
- As an Artist, he imagined a future of technology that was closely tied to well-being.For instance, he did an installation of TVs that were in a garden of tropical plants. This was June Paik’s way of making the claim that Technology was ecology.
- Video as Material.
- I think this is one of the important things to keep in mind with video art, that the video is raw material that the art is being made from.
- If Zoom is a material for an art project, what can be done with it? How can this active video phone call be used?
- Nam June Paik’s sensibility was a repseonse to seeing painting as obsolete. He saw that the world through video was taking on the attributes of change, flux and motion.
- He also moved a few times to different parts of the world. Most notably, the time spent in Japan was crucial as it was a time that he found himself tied to a group of avant-garde artists. A group of people who were also active in the Fluxus movement
/w Charlotte Moorman.
- It is kind of like she is performing with herself, and by that i mean, the recordings of herself.
- Again, video/tvs are used as a material for the artwork.
Hi Justin!
Week 1:
Katchadourian notes complete and lots of reflection and engagement, 3 Book stack images complete and more – I find them a bit puzzling (you seem to use a very personal, idiosyncratic symbology) but I see lots of thinking and processing, and a genuine investment in the materials and compositions.
Week 2:
Notes on two text works complete and epic! Sometimes you are joking I think? Is it all absurd? But shows general level of understanding of critical ideas at play.
Week 3:
Text banner exercise and description – so much process and thinking, and close consideration of the article. Great choice of found words – but your materials/colours/and context are puzzling – again – sort of a very personal symbology that isn’t available to viewers. Oh man, imagine the possibilities with “looping”! You could hang it in a circle, where it loops, or other choices that really relate to the meaning of the words. Think more about how material, form, and context all expand meaning for a wider audience – and not just a personal story.
Week 4:
Nature video- I’m wondering if this is also a bit irreverent? Or earnest? Either way is fine – but I’d love to feel one or the other more strongly, as your explicit intention. I laughed watching it – and wondered if you might stand there and be a tree as long as you can? Or showing somehow the absurdity, futility, and gap between the human and the arboreal – in some new and affecting way…and why a cellphone video in the vertical frame? No tripod/fixing of camera? Think about all these choices, especially in a subtle work like this – they all matter.
Notes – did you really dig into these pieces? A bit thin!
I know the works we look at together are surprising, and sometimes even absurd. But trust these references and give them serious attention. Art is a conversation, and you have to listen to other practitioners from the past, and now, in order to participate.
In your own work, think about experimentation (not knowing what will happen) and risk – push yourself but while being safe to make something with more complexity and seriousness.
Thank you for your attendance and engagement in class discussions and activities. We’d like to see and hear more from you!
If you would like to talk with me about your work in progress, readings, exercises, one-on-one comments on your work, and grades – send me an email in the morning to book a 15 minute appointment during the optional in person hours: Thursdays 2:30 – 4:30
And you can show up to a zoom meeting with Nathan anytime during these hours to ask your questions, and get tech support for using software and finishing your projects:
Mondays and Thursdays 1-4pm
Hi Justin,
Thanks so much for the dedicated work looking and reflecting on the readings and lecture materials, and the Yes No video worked out so well, I think you should all show it next year for Zavitz or in JAS. Thanks for your participation in class too – and contributions to all the exercises, baking, discussions etc. it’s wonderful to have you in the class and I hope we’ll see you again in Experimental 3!
Diane